Merchants of shame: Never eating here again.

[Danika]

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't expect sweeteners in things that don't normally call for sugar - you know, savory things. Having it in EVERYTHING, even things that didn't have it previously at the same restaurant, is quite excessive and, IMHO, unnecessary.

I agree. I didn't know that artificial sweeteners were used in anything other than soft drinks until I read this thread.

[snowdragon]

Common allergens, absolutely.  There are some things that I think can be noted on a menu - nuts, lactose, gluten, vegan and things like that.  Of course those can be noted, so that the customer knows to stay away from them.

However, a menu cannot have a symbol for every little thing that someone could be allergic to if it's not a well-known allergy.  What we're seeing now are people who are allergic to things that may not be common - or usual in the mainstream.  And to cover every possible thing that could be in the food, you'd have to resort to what I described above.  A restaurant cannot list every ingredient in their food.  It's not reasonable or practical.  At some point, a diner does have to have the responsibility to ask if a certain ingredient is in the food.  Especially if it's not one of the major "everyone knows about this" type of things.

But even asking the waiter doesn't ensure that one's allergens are not present. We've heard story after story on this thread and others, about people asking, being told "No allergen", and eating it with very bad results.  Or not even thinking to ask.  Do you think to ask if the cheesy bread on the table has artificial sweeteners or not? If there are nuts in the glaze on the steak?  If there are bananas in the strawberry sundae?

I have a food sensitivity/allergy  to mustard. (It makes me projectile vomit.)  I like potato salad, but since I cannot be positively assured that the restaurant or deli or donor at the church picnic does not use mustard, I avoid all of it on principal.  The only absolutely safe potato salad for me is my own.  DH and I paid for two tickets to a Knights of Columbus banquet last fall.  It came out, and fortunately DH tasted the chicken before I did.  It had a mustard glaze.  The waiter disappeared, never to be seen again after bringing it out, so I couldn't even send it back and ask if anything else was available.  I said polite goodbyes to everyone else at the table, and went to McD's for food I could eat.

I've had restaurants lie to me about my allergens. 

[Lorelei_Evil]

I have too.  Most waitstaff don't know every single ingredient in things.  I'm allergic to honey, so I have to play the probability game.  No wheat bread, no cornbread, stay away from BBQ sauce when eating out.  Chipotle isn't even safe because of the salad dressing (hate that place anyway). 

[Mental Magpie]

Again - this is the FIRST time that she had reacted to an allergen in food at this restaurant.  She had eaten there safely before.  She did not expect artificial sweeteners to be in something not billed as "diet".  She now knows not to eat at Friday's because they have apparently added artificial sweetener to a number of dishes where you would not expect it.

I did ask about a couple of other items (that VorGuy & I ate), they had the artificial sweeteners in them as well.  Our daughter and my mother will not be joining us at Friday's because they have a reaction to the same thing (not as severe - but the more exposure the worse those things tend to get). 

And Lil Sis is going to be asking when she enters a restaurant about their use of her three trigger foods...it is being added to her "routine" - but she'd never run into artificial sweeteners in every dish on the menu before, so it wasn't something that she knew to ask before last month's trip to the ER.

The two bolded sentences don't make sense.
Your sister has experience/knowledge that restaurants, such as Friday's puts sweeteners into various foods that aren't billed as diet.  She knows this, she expects this.  So how can you then say the sweeteners are not expected in dishes?  If one place (Friday's) puts them in, it stands to reason she should expect other places - especially restaurants that cater to the same market/demographic - will as well.

WillyNilly, I think you missed the keyword "now" at the beginning if the second sentence.

VorFemme, I understand this was the first time it happened. I don't understand, though, how your reply has to do with what I wrote. I'm obviously missing a connection somewhere.  Your sister couldn't have known it was in the food, but neither could the restaurant know your sister couldn't have it.

[artk2002]

Again - this is the FIRST time that she had reacted to an allergen in food at this restaurant.  She had eaten there safely before.  She did not expect artificial sweeteners to be in something not billed as "diet".  She now knows not to eat at Friday's because they have apparently added artificial sweetener to a number of dishes where you would not expect it.

I did ask about a couple of other items (that VorGuy & I ate), they had the artificial sweeteners in them as well.  Our daughter and my mother will not be joining us at Friday's because they have a reaction to the same thing (not as severe - but the more exposure the worse those things tend to get). 

And Lil Sis is going to be asking when she enters a restaurant about their use of her three trigger foods...it is being added to her "routine" - but she'd never run into artificial sweeteners in every dish on the menu before, so it wasn't something that she knew to ask before last month's trip to the ER.

The two bolded sentences don't make sense.
Your sister has experience/knowledge that restaurants, such as Friday's puts sweeteners into various foods that aren't billed as diet.  She knows this, she expects this.  So how can you then say the sweeteners are not expected in dishes?  If one place (Friday's) puts them in, it stands to reason she should expect other places - especially restaurants that cater to the same market/demographic - will as well.

There's no contradiction. The first sentence applies before the event (hence the use of the past tense "did") and the second one applies after (using the word "now.")

She experienced one restaurant that did this; prior to this event, she didn't expect them. Despite this experience, I would not expect to find artificial sweeteners in anything not marked "diet" or "lo-cal" or "lite" in any restaurant other than Fridays. One data point doesn't make a trend. Artificial sweeteners are not a normal or expected part of non-diet foods. I just did a brief web search and couldn't find any evidence that this is anything but one restaurant. Given that there are people who react badly to artificial sweeteners, and others who avoid them for other reasons, Friday's was absolutely wrong not to put "Made with Splendifertameitol" on their menu. The Friday's web site says that individual ingredients may change from restaurant to restaurant, so it's possible that this was the only place that did it.

[DottyG]

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't expect sweeteners in things that don't normally call for sugar - you know, savory things.

Really?  I know of recipes that have sugar (or, if you want to substitute, artificial sweeteners) in them that are savory.  A touch of sugar doesn't, necessarily, make something sweet like a dessert.  It can offset other ingredients in the dish and still be just as savory.

I can think of a bean dish that my Mom makes (that's very good) that's savory but has a touch of sugar in it to offset a bit of the vinegar that's called for, for instance.

[Diane AKA Traska]

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't expect sweeteners in things that don't normally call for sugar - you know, savory things.

Really?  I know of recipes that have sugar (or, if you want to substitute, artificial sweeteners) in them that are savory.  A touch of sugar doesn't, necessarily, make something sweet like a dessert.  It can offset other ingredients in the dish and still be just as savory.

I can think of a bean dish that my Mom makes (that's very good) that's savory but has a touch of sugar in it to offset a bit of the vinegar that's called for, for instance.

I also wouldn't consider barbecue a dessert, but most sauces have some sugar in them.

[DottyG]

Diane, good point.  I hadn't thought of that, but you're right.

[jedikaiti]

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't expect sweeteners in things that don't normally call for sugar - you know, savory things.

Really?  I know of recipes that have sugar (or, if you want to substitute, artificial sweeteners) in them that are savory.  A touch of sugar doesn't, necessarily, make something sweet like a dessert.  It can offset other ingredients in the dish and still be just as savory.

I can think of a bean dish that my Mom makes (that's very good) that's savory but has a touch of sugar in it to offset a bit of the vinegar that's called for, for instance.

True - my DF's chili recipe calls for honey. But really, even that narrows down the field to a few savory items with sweeteners. I'll give a pass to a BBQ joint that has sugar in all their sauces. But I find it a bit mind-boggling that a place with a more varied menu - like TGIFriday's - managed to put sweeteners in Every Single Dish. It makes me wonder if one of their executives owns stock in whoever makes their sweetener of choice.

[VorFemme]

Again - this is the FIRST time that she had reacted to an allergen in food at this restaurant.  She had eaten there safely before.  She did not expect artificial sweeteners to be in something not billed as "diet".  She now knows not to eat at Friday's because they have apparently added artificial sweetener to a number of dishes where you would not expect it.

I did ask about a couple of other items (that VorGuy & I ate), they had the artificial sweeteners in them as well.  Our daughter and my mother will not be joining us at Friday's because they have a reaction to the same thing (not as severe - but the more exposure the worse those things tend to get). 

And Lil Sis is going to be asking when she enters a restaurant about their use of her three trigger foods...it is being added to her "routine" - but she'd never run into artificial sweeteners in every dish on the menu before, so it wasn't something that she knew to ask before last month's trip to the ER.

The two bolded sentences don't make sense.
Your sister has experience/knowledge that restaurants, such as Friday's puts sweeteners into various foods that aren't billed as diet.  She knows this, she expects this.  So how can you then say the sweeteners are not expected in dishes?  If one place (Friday's) puts them in, it stands to reason she should expect other places - especially restaurants that cater to the same market/demographic - will as well.

She knows now that food NOT labelled as diet or reduced calorie may have artificial sweeteners in it.

As of last month, there were no artificial sweeteners used in the food the last time she had eaten at the same place.  So - new recipe or at least a change from table sugar to something artificial.

She had never had this severe a reaction before, either.  I may not have been clear in my phrasing.

There was a lot of artificial sweetener used for her to react in less than two hours and loose the entire meal about three hours after eating.  Not trace amounts of sweetener, but a huge amount of it had to be in the food.

We asked after eating, because she got so sick so fast.  And were shocked at sweetener being used in cheese bread and pasta dishes.  The miso sauce was sweet - but if had been the only source of chemical sweetener, she would not have been feeling ill in less than an hour, really sick in less than two hours, and purging her stomach in about three hours.

[Danika]

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't expect sweeteners in things that don't normally call for sugar - you know, savory things.

Really?  I know of recipes that have sugar (or, if you want to substitute, artificial sweeteners) in them that are savory.  A touch of sugar doesn't, necessarily, make something sweet like a dessert.  It can offset other ingredients in the dish and still be just as savory.

I can think of a bean dish that my Mom makes (that's very good) that's savory but has a touch of sugar in it to offset a bit of the vinegar that's called for, for instance.

I also wouldn't consider barbecue a dessert, but most sauces have some sugar in them.

Sure. As well as some salad dressings that have sugar or maple syrup.

But while I would expect sugar, honey or maple syrup in BBQ sauce, bean dishes and possibly salad dressing, I would not expect sucralose, saccharin or aspartame.

[Diane AKA Traska]

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't expect sweeteners in things that don't normally call for sugar - you know, savory things.

Really?  I know of recipes that have sugar (or, if you want to substitute, artificial sweeteners) in them that are savory.  A touch of sugar doesn't, necessarily, make something sweet like a dessert.  It can offset other ingredients in the dish and still be just as savory.

I can think of a bean dish that my Mom makes (that's very good) that's savory but has a touch of sugar in it to offset a bit of the vinegar that's called for, for instance.

I also wouldn't consider barbecue a dessert, but most sauces have some sugar in them.

Sure. As well as some salad dressings that have sugar or maple syrup.

But while I would expect sugar, honey or maple syrup in BBQ sauce, bean dishes and possibly salad dressing, I would not expect sucralose, saccharin or aspartame.

Unless they're trying to come off as a "healthy alternative" to other places.

[DottyG]

But while I would expect sugar, honey or maple syrup in BBQ sauce, bean dishes and possibly salad dressing, I would not expect sucralose, saccharin or aspartame.

Afraid I'm still going to have to differ with you on that.  I still know recipes that call for either/or.  In fact, Mom's bean dish sometimes has SweetNLow instead of sugar.  Just depends on the mood as to what she puts in it.  Likewise other recipes.

[DottyG]

Editing my previous post, because this one fits better.
 
Did a 2 second search on Google.  This came up:
 
http://www.sweetnlow.com/recipes/main
 
 

 

[Outdoor Girl]

I just don't understand why a restaurant would do it.  Sugar is considerably cheaper than any of the sugar substitutes so the restaurant would be decreasing their profit margin if they suddenly switched, unless they raised all their prices, of course.